A featured snippet is a highlighted answer box that appears at the top of Google's search results, directly answering the user's query without requiring a click. Featured snippets are also called "position zero" because they appear above the first organic result.
Types of featured snippets:
- Paragraph snippets: Text-based answers
- List snippets: Numbered or bulleted lists
- Table snippets: Data in table format
- Video snippets: Video with timestamp
Featured snippets matter for AI visibility because:
- They indicate Google considers you an authoritative source
- AI Overviews often pull from featured snippet sources
- Snippet-worthy content tends to be well-structured for AI
- Winning snippets correlates with AI citation likelihood
To optimize for featured snippets:
- Answer questions directly and concisely
- Use clear formatting (headers, lists, tables)
- Target question-based queries
- Provide comprehensive supporting content